India on Wednesday raised with Britain the plight of 49,000-strong Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) Visa holders, mostly Indians, and suggested that any changes in the policy should not be applied retrospectively.
At the two-day meeting of the India-UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) held here, the Indian delegation led by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath emphasised that Britain adopt a more liberal visa regime for students and liberal visas for Indian professionals working for Indian companies, given that UK is used to service the whole of EU.
An estimated 49,000 highly skilled professionals, mostly from India came over here since 2002 when Britain introduced the HSMP scheme promising the professionals, including doctors, scientists and IT specialists, that they could settle down here at the end of four years.
But in November last year, Britain suddenly effected changes in their Visa regime and adopted a new point based system under which many of the professionals who entered the UK under HSMP since 2002 were not able to qualify for permanent residency.
Earlier NASSCOM had made a representation to Liam Byrne, Britain's Minister in the Home office regarding revisions to UK Work Permit Regulations. Specifically NASSCOM had argued that the requirement that a company should employ a worker for six months before becoming eligible for a UK ICT Work Permit is difficult to meet in the IT sector where staff is often recruited after winning major contracts.
According to sources, the delegation also stressed that the UK should revise the list of eligible criteria to include Indian Business Schools and National Institutions such as IIMs, IITs and National Institute of Fashion Technology.
Keywords: HSMP, UK Migration, Work Permit to UK
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